Rovering To Success

ROCK NUMBER FOUR

CUCKOOS AND HUMBUGS

		HAVE you ever watched a cuckoo at her job? When
she wants to lay an egg she doesn't go to the trouble
of making a nest, she goes about looking for some other
birds' nest, preferably that of the harmless little meadow
pippit. When she finds one she goes into it, regardless of any
protests on the part of the owner, and she takes up one of the
pippit's eggs in her beak and drops her own egg in its place.
Then she flies off to a neighbouring tree and eats the egg
that she has stolen. The pippit on her part meekly accepts
this dictation and does all the work of hatching out the
cuckoo's egg among her own. The result is a big ugly
nestling which even before its eyes are open at once begins
to bully its nest mates and finally heaves them out one by
one till it has the nest to itself and the full service of the
parent pippits for its feeding, etc.
		We all know the insistent voice with which the cuckoo
goes about proclaiming himself above all other birds.
		But it is not only in bird life that all this happens; we
have human cuckoos, too.

THE HUMAN CUCKOO
		The human cuckoo is generally a superior sort of person
who sees his own side of a question but nobody else's. He
is the self-interested man who wants only his own way in the
world; he makes use of the work of other humbler folk for
his own benefit, or he pushes others out who may be in the
way of his getting the things he wants. You find the human
cuckoo in various forms such as cranks, political tub-thum-
pers, intellectual highbrows, and social snobs, and other
extremists.
		There are two dangers about these cuckoos.
		One is that you may be sucked in to follow their lead.
		The other is that you may become one yourself.

THE PERSUASIVE HERD-LEADER
		Have you ever been to a large open-air market? You will
see there on every hand experts selling goods. They are
not ordinary shopkeepers, they are professors at the game.
they catch your ear and then your eye and, finally, your
mastery of yourself I have been all but taken in their net. I was
in point of fact merely looking out to find a brass candlestick
for my mantelpiece. As near as a toucher I was let in for Lot
No.4. It had nothing to do with candlesticks, but I was
simply hypnotised by the auctioneer to bid for it. This lot
contained nothing nearer to my needs than an old saddle, a
file, and a pair of partly worn stays.
		But such was the power of the tub-thumper that I only
escaped by the skin of my teeth and, as it was, I ran into
another persuasive man round the corner who was selling a
pair of lace curtains. And here I very nearly fell again, not
because I could ever want such things, but because he said
he was in a vast hurry and packed up to go, and this lot
was accidentally left out, and he would rather sell them for
what they would fetch than undo all his packages again;
but he was in a hurry, just off, another minute and the
wonderful chance would be gone.
		Fortunately I just managed to tear myself off too-in the
opposite direction. Happening to pass that way an hour
later I found him still at it, selling his curtains like hot cakes
because he was in a desperate hurry, and he hustled people
to snap them up in a hurry, too-though possibly to repent
at leisure later on.
		Well-it is much the same with the good loud-voiced
political orator; with the gift of the gab he will bag at one
go a whole crowd of open-mouthed wondering lads, who
have never troubled to hear the other side of the question
about which he is spouting. They fall like ripe plums to his
shake; he hypnotises the whole herd. But he cannot mes-
merise the individual fellow who doesn't mean to be carried
away by the rest.
		It is not only the orator that catches unthinking listeners,
there are writers too; and somehow, when you see a thing
in black and white, you tend to think it must be true. You
naturally take for gospel anything that you read in the
papers until you come to enquire into it and to recognise
that it is the opinion of one man writing for his living or
to back certain views.
		There are writers of repute who have studied great ques-
tions and who claim to put the matter clearly for those who
have not the time or opportunity for going deeply into it.
		But even these make their mistakes or take sides, and are
apt to colour their pictures rather highly, so it doesn't do to
trust them entirely. If they happen to be writing on one
side of the question it is well to read what some equally
good authority has to say on the other.
		And then there are the snakes in the grass, the fellows
who get hold of you by chance in conversation, with great
ideas, or who lure you through attractive clubs or with well-
sounding "Brotherhoods". There are lots of them about;
so keep at least one eye open and both ears and all your wits.
Every one of these cuckoos has his particular aim in getting
hold of promising young men. Sometimes the aim is harm-
less, but more often than not there is some vice underlying it.

THE SEE-SAWS
		These are the extreme views that people are apt to give
you from Opposite ends of the see-saw. That is, they are
the cuckoos that make the noise in the world and so attract
attention of the general flock of birds.
		But fortunately for the nation there is a quiet common-
sense middle lot of men in between the extremists who,
though they don't talk loud, think quietly for themselves:
sensible workmen, human employers, and public-spirited
benefactors; in other words, a citizenhood that is out for
fair play and mutual forbearance for the good of the whole.
It is this solid element that serves to keep the balance
between the extremes.

EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION
		The right kind of evolution is a very big question, affect-
ing every branch of public and private life, needing the
careful study and careful handling of disinterested men if it is
going to be a blessing instead of a curse to the mass of the
people.
		The older men who have had more time in their lives to
look round the world to see what has gone on are inclined
to ask what extremists would put up in place of the exist-
ing form of government. They recognise that progress in
the right direction is quietly going on all the time; that is
evolution, a natural development; but a new constitution
built up all in a hurry could only be a jerry-built affair.
		Young bloods are too impatient.
		Once on a time I lived with a missionary in an unhealthy
spot in West Africa. He was the fourth incumbent of the
place in four years. His predecessors had died there or been
hurried off to healthier climes. I asked him whether he
really thought it good enough when one looked round and
saw how little real effect the Christianity had upon the
natives into whom it had been inculcated at such sacrifice.
And he explained that he never expected to see tangible
results in his time, but that he felt that the seed sown in the
present generation, though it remained underground, would
gradually take root and come up in the next generation and
possibly blossom and bear fruit several generations later on.
		Well, that was a fine spirit in which to tackle the job.
If more of it were developed in our efforts to bring about
better conditions for the country the effect would probably
be all the more successful in the end.
		But extremists generally prefer to be up in the limelight,
instead of working in obscurity at making foundations.

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT
		Freedom of the individual is only right so far as it doesn't
interfere with the good of the community as a whole.
Every fellow is welcome to have his own opinions, but there
has to be a limit somewhere. We are all in agreement with
trying to do away with the disgrace which at present hangs
over civilisation in almost every country; where human
beings, through no fault of their own, are condemned to live
through an existence of misery and squalor through bad
organisation and faulty conditions. We all want to ensure
that every human being who is put into this world by God
should have his fair chance of enjoying and making the best
of life without being handicapped from the first by man-
made circumstances of poverty. But no amount of cuckoo
work will put an end to this, anymore than will all the Acts of
Parliament that may be made. It is a matter for the good
will and co-operation of all classes to help our worse-off
brothers out of the mire, mainly by giving them a proper
education in character towards career-making.

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
		I have been in most civilised countries of the world. It
doesn't seem to make much difference to the happiness of
the people whether the country is governed by a King or
a President. In fact, the President of the United States has
far more autocratic power in his own hands over his country
than our Monarch has in Britain.
		The King, by our constitution, does not rule, but keeps
the government running on constitutional lines. He has no
power to make war, though he has a high standing for
keeping the peace. He is not elected by any particular
party of politicians, but comes into the position by succes-
sion, trained for it from youth, and without political bias or
interest. The main objection raised is that a monarch costs
money to the State.
		That also is the case with the head of the Government in
every country; but in Britain it does not happen to be so
true, because our King has private means of his own and
uses them to the full.
		In some Republics the President is elected by his own
political party; in others he gets there by force of arms;
and in many he and his Government are out to make hay
while the sun shines, and feather their nests while they are
yet in power. We have also seen dictators come into power
in countries where people, through internal differences, were
not a nation that could count in the world. Where these dic-
tators have been men of exceptional character they have
done a remarkable work in regimenting their people into a
consolidated national body. But it has meant restriction of
the freedom of their subjects to gain that end. In the
British Commonwealth our different States rule themselves
democratically in the hands of party politicians nominally
representing the will of the people.

WHERE LABOUR STANDS IN BRITAIN
		In Great Britain, apart from being merely a political
party, Labour has gradually and steadily raised itself on its
merits as a National institution, through the work of a
succession of earnest, far-seeing men. Its members have
been handicapped by extremist jackals yapping round them
and trying to divert them to more violent methods. But
they are British, and that is the point which the jackals,
who are mostly from other countries, don't grasp.
		The Trades Unions have grown up to be great organisa-
tions for safeguarding the workers, and the Co-operative
Trading organisations, as well as the Workers' Friendly
Societies) are now immense business schemes testifying to big
outlook and administrative ability among our working men.
		Education is now being seriously encouraged and claimed
for the rising generation of workers; because of the need of
character, as well as of knowledge, if the majority of our
population are going to enjoy the good of life. Whatever
may be other differences of political outlook all parties are
agreed on this one point, and all treat it as of first importance
namely Education for Citizenship. In these two qualities lie
the key to prosperity and the peace of our people in the
future.
		But it is well not to Sit down and wait for universities to
come to you, nor indeed to expect a university to do every-
thing for you when it does come. A very considerable por-
tion of that education can be, and can best be, carried out
by every man for himself if he only sets his mind to it.
		That is why I am bothering you with this book.

THE AMBITIOUS CUCKOO
		As I have said before, apart from the danger of being
sucked in by highfalutin talkers, there is the danger of
becoming a highbrow oneself.
		Such a lot of fellows, while they are young, think no small
beer of themselves as politicians, or poets, thinkers or orators,
artists and the like. I was a real cuckoo myself~equally
intent on becoming a red-hot Socialist or a devoted
Missionary, and I wore a green tie with forked lightning
on it!
		In Enchanter's Nightshade-which please read if you want
a delightful walking-tour-amusing-philosophy-book-J. B.
Morton wrote of a tourist meeting with a commercial
traveller on the road. The C.T. said: "I am contented with
my work; there is more in it than touting and braying my
wares in the market-place. The market-place itself is
sometimes worth seeing. I go about a lot, see new places,
meet new people.... I don't want to be bounded, caged by
my work. I am a traveller, and I often forget the com-
mercial part of it. I shall be sacked one day, and then I shall
probably play the piano in a picture show. I've no ambition.
All I want is to see life, and to live it, to some extent."
		"Ambition is a mixed blessing," said the tourist.
		"Have you got ambition?" asked the C.T
		"I have," said the tourist; "my pals have. We all want
to make our names by writing."
		The C. T. smiled, as a parent might smile at a
bright little boy.
		"It is a phase," he said. "I have had it. I
thought I was Paderewski; wore my hair long; never cut my
nails; starved; read morbid books; pined for love. But
I got over it as I got older."
		"And now you are happy?"
		"I am."
		And he was right. A man who has the cheap ambition to make himself
famous or to exalt himself amongst his fellows is laying
out for himself disappointment, mingled with envy, hatred and
malice, against those who pass him in the race.
		Ambition to do right is the only ambition that counts, and
that helps towards happiness.
		But the personal ambition to be thought great or exceptional
makes prigs.

WANT OF HUMOUR
		G. K. Chesterton pointed to the fact that the average
"cuckoo" has little sense of humour.
		"Few people," said he, "seem to understand the fan-
tastic when it is used logically upon the principle of the
reductio ad absurdum. For instance, a man says there ought to
be no private property of any kind: that there are none
of the things that men have that they should not share.
You then say to him, 'Your proposal about a communal
toothbrush, or a communal pair of trousers,' and he replies
that you are simply making a jest of the discussion. The
point to insist upon is that he is the man who has made
the absurd remark. He is the man who has made the joke,
but the difference is that I can see the joke and he can't.
Do not think I give you that example merely as indicating
partisanship on general political or other matters. Just the
same absurdities are uttered on what may be called the
reactionary side. For instance, when the ordinary jolly old
major, or man in the club, tells you, as a man in a club told
me, 'I always like to fight the enemy with their own
weapons.' I say to him, 'How long does it take you to
sting a wasp?' or 'How do cannibals taste?' or something
of that sort. In these circumstances, the man in the club is
liable  to accuse you of fantasy, but, as a matter of fact, it is
he who is fantastic."

WANT OF REVERENCE
		The Times reported some time ago: "Lord Morley has
lamented the decay of reverence in modern democracy, and
Lord Bryce in his recently published work expresses the
same anxiety, though he believes that reverence may revive
in the future. We trust that such revival will take place.
Flippancy, conceit and cynicism render men selfish and
contemptuous. They ask 'Who will show us any good?'
and, finding no answer to their minds, they cease to believe
in goodness. When this happens, reverence dies, and in its
death all hope of moral and spiritual progress is destroyed
with it." The "cuckoo" has no respect for the views of
other people.
		I agree with Lord Bryce that reverence may revive, for I
am sure it will revive among the improved breed of young
men who are coming forward in future. It lies with you
fellows to bring it about.

THEN THERE ARE THE SNOBS
		The snobbishness of class against class is one of the causes
of the present social unrest that is damaging our country.
		You younger fellows can put a stop to it if you only have
the will to do so.
		It is for the better-off fellows-you who have had the
luck to get a better education-it is for you to hold out a
hand of fellowship and good will to your less well-to~do
brothers. If you are gentlemen-as you profess-you will
do it. Indeed, I am glad to believe that the best public
schools and universities are already doing it, not in any
sense of condescension, but as brother men and fellow-
countrymen. Their elder brothers did it in the war to
save the country: they made common sacrifices, and they
were comrades together.
		And you chaps who are not so well off, you would think
it pretty low down, wouldn't you, if, when another team
had the luck to get the better of you in a game, you turned
nasty and booed them? You wouldn't do it. It would be
unsportsmanlike.
		Don't be unsportsmanlike, then, in the case of a fellow
who has had the luck to have more money than you have.
		He is your fellow-countryman and fellow-man. He is all
right at heart.

Like Chevalier's coster-
"'E's all right when yer know 'im,
But ye've got to know 'im fust."

		If you play football with him, man to man, clothed alike
and equally muddy, there's not much difference between
you. It clearly shows that there is no snobbishness there.
It shows that class difference is only skin-deep; all are
brothers below the surface and in their hearts.
		I once took a very smart young officer of the Life Guards
down South-east London to show him something of the
other side of life from that of drawing-rooms and clubs. I
had myself, when a youngster, gone into the life of those parts
as a plumber.
		I thought it would be a bit of an education for him.
		It turned out to be a bit of an education for me. When we
got into the club that I know of down there he fished out a
dirty old pipe, ordered his beer, and in a few minutes had the
chaps round him roaring with laughter at the yarns he
was telling.
		On our way home later on I lost my way in the labyrinth
of alleys and back streets, and when I confessed, at last, that
I was out of my reckoning for Waterloo Bridge, he at once
took the lead and said, "This way, up this alley."
		I then learnt that my friend was quite accustomed to
coming to these parts. He took people for what they were,
not for what their clothes made them.
		It was not condescension but human feeling on his part.
And that is "good medicine," as Red Indians say-for all
of us.
		"Superior persons" often seem to think that if a man
is in a different line of life from themselves he therefore
has not a human heart inside him. A "superior person" is
a snob.

THE GUSH PRIG
		A Gush Prig is a fellow who lets himself go in "gush".
By gush I mean something that you produce, thinking it
brilliant, but which is not the outcome of knowledge or
experience.
		It may be talk, it may be poetry or prose writing. Self-
expression is a good thing, but when it breaks out into
gush-well, too often it goes to the head and swells it.
		A good many young men find at twenty-two that they
know practically all that there is to know-and they want
other people to know that they know it.
		When they get to thirty-two they find that they have
still got one or two things to learn; at forty-two they are
learning hard. (I am still doing so at seventy-three.)
		Politicians, especially those of very pronounced views,
generally become disappointing to their original supporters
as they become older. The reason for this is that they
have meantime been learning a lot, their outlook has be-
come broadened by experience, and they have realised the
great fact that there is more than one side to a question.
		I used to think wonderfully fine thoughts when I was
young, and I wrote them down with a poetic fervour that I
felt was inspiration. My word, they were tosh when I came
to read them later! I have to-day received a letter of eight
sheets from a young man who is evidently in the same
stage.
		He talks of-well, it is hard to know what he is talking
about when he says: "People like myself suffered because
they saw in the spirit of Scouting a religion and a poetry
more dynamic by far than myriads of golden sermons, pro-
mises and laws, and because they were willing to follow over
the thorny valleys of convention and through the buffeting
seas of intolerance and un-imagination that roll and seethe
from shore to shore of ordinary mob-psychology."
		Fine!
		It reminds me of Browning the great poet. When he
was asked what exactly was the meaning intended in one of
his earlier poems, he replied: "When I wrote that poem I,
at any rate, knew what it meant-and God knew.
		"Now-God only knows."
		I once heard a Salvation Army officer giving advice to a
party of emigrants as they were starting for one of the Over-
sea Dominions. He said: "Before you have been there
many weeks you will be showing the people there how much
better they might do their jobs; and you will be writing
home to tell your people that you never saw such a God-
forsaken country and such a rotten lot of people.
		"My advice to you is, Write your letter, but do not post
it for six months or so. Then re-open it and see what
nonsense you have written and be thankful that you did
not send it."
		I think the same advice might be useful to many a young
man going Out into the world, namely, to write his gush, but
to keep it for a few years and then look it over again, and
he will doubtless be glad to tear it up before anyone else can
see it.
		The safeguard is to get your learning first, before you let
yourself go, so that you start on right ground, and so don't
have to retract or tear up later on.

SELF-EDUCATION

SELF-EDUCATION A SAFEGUARD AGAINST CUCKOOISM
		I have tried in the above paragraphs to show you the
dangers of the cuckoo rock, namely those of being led
astray by the persuasive call of the cuckoo or of becoming
a cuckoo yourself.
		The next point is what to do to get past the rock in safety.
Education is one great safeguard. By education I don't
mean improved scholarship but education of mind and soul.
The one enables you to pass by the danger; education of soul
raises you far above it. If you expand your mind by giving
yourself wider knowledge through travel and reading,
through learning from the experiences of others, and from
the study of nature, you will be safe against the call of
the cuckoo; and if you expand your soul by giving yourself
higher ideals and by giving to others your sympathy through
good will and helpfulness you can never be much of a cuckoo
yourself, or a "highbrow" as it is called in America; and
you will find yourself a better and a happier man.
		A prig is generally a prig because he thinks he knows
everything when in reality he has often a great deal to learn.
He tries to show himself off as more clever than other people
while he presumes upon their ignorance. The philosopher
Bacon said of old, "Nothing doth hurt in a State more
than that CUNNING men should pass for WISE."
		The older and wiser you become the less cunning you
find yourself, and the more you want to learn. Begin, there-
fore, by taking in knowledge and experience; later on will
be time enough for giving it out.
		When you leave school you have been trained to the
general standard of the rest of the class-or herd. But
after leaving school some men rise above the average of the
rest, many go on among the herd, while some go down into
the gutter.
		Success or failure largely depends on your own efforts.
Those fellows that use their school knowledge to educate
themselves are the ones to get on. That is where books and
lectures come in to help you.
		Travel and reading and Nature study are all part of sell~
education. Take reading. With your books around you you
have a magic power; when others are fussing and losing their
hair over political hopes and disappointments you are sitting
content with what you have got. You can at any moment
remove yourself and travel through far-off lands, dip into
the history of other times, command the wonders of science,
amuse yourself with good stories, and see beauty in thought
through poetry.
		Books are the best friends a man can have. You choose
those that you like; you can rely on them at all times; they
can help you in your work, in your leisure, and in your
sorrow. You have them always around you at your beck and
call in your home.
		They are not nowadays very expensive if you only buy
one now and then to make up your collection. At any rate,
the nearest public library will bring almost any book to
your hand without expense. But books of your very own
are the better friends and companions. Don't buy a book
because it is cheap, for very cheap books are often equally
nasty. Go for the best while you art about it.
		If you have already read books, then you know what sorts
you like. If you have never done much reading, let me
advise you to begin at once-you will never regret it-and
begin with something that interests you.
		If you are out to instruct yourself; an encyclopaedia in a
public library is a good "first aid" to a subject, and gener-
ally gives the names of other books in that particular line.
And when you read, read, don't skim; and if you study
while you read, that is, if you worry out the meaning care-
fully in your own mind, it will stick by you all the longer and
be the more useful to you in the end.
		If you read with the intention of remembering you will
remember.
		This is Bacon's advice: "Reade not to contradict and
compute: neither to Beleeve and take for granted: nor to
finde Talk and Discourse: but to weigh and Consider.
Some books are to be tasted, Others to be Swallowed, and
Some Few are to be Chewed and Digested....
		"Reading maketh a Full Man, Conference a Ready Man,
and Writing an Exact Man....
		"If a Man Reade little he hath need to have much Cun-
ning so that he may seeme to know that whiche he doth
not."
		I have found it a jolly useful practice to note down in
my diary any good thing that I have read or heard that
day. Some fellows do it now on a card-index system, so
that you can look up any subject under its alphabetical
letter.
		At any rate it is as well, after storing as much as you can
of good stuff into your mind, to back it up with a written
reminder of this sort.
		But reading without outlook is no good. You must
balance literary knowledge by knowledge of the world, of
men, and things. Travel is a valuable step to this, but an
observant, sympathetic man can get as much knowledge of
his fellow-men in a walk of a mile or so as a stodgy one would
get in a thousand miles,

TRAVEL AS EDUCATION
		I was walking through Southampton Docks one day when
I struck the scent of spices and coffee coming from one of the
warehouses on the quay. I felt impelled to go inside to ask
their origin. When the man told me that they were the
cargoes of ships sailing from Monte Video, Rio Janeiro, and
La Plata, the temptation was too great! I then and there
took a ticket for South America, though I had to borrow to
do it. A few weeks later I was on my way. The voyage, the
variety of characters on board, the new countries visited,
the insight into new peoples and a new atmosphere, coupled
with the sight of the vast pampas and the glorious Andes,
opened out my mind and ideas. They did for me in a few
weeks what years of study could never have accomplished.
		Even if one can't manage to get abroad there is ever so
much to see in your own country, and so many sides of life
to be investigated when travelling with a push-bike, or
even on one's own flat feet. In one's own town or neigh-
bourhood, if one cannot go farther afield, there are bound to
be relics of ancient history of the place and people whose
experiences are worth hearing. But travel of this kind, if
carried out with the view to observing and finding out all you
can of men and things, all comes as an invaluable step in
your course of self-education. David Grayson, in The Friendly Road,
tells how he left his farm and went for a
tramping tour, without money and without definite plans,
merely to drink in the beauties of the countryside and to
meet with other people and to find the best in them. And
80 it came about that he found great courage in the village
minister, human sympathy and simplicity in a millionaire,
an awakened spirit in a hopeless farmer, and large outlook
in a socialist orator.
		I mention this book, not merely on account of its charm
and interest, but because this venture of the author gives
exactly an example of what could be done by anyone desireing
to educate himself through the open-road method. It
is a method that is available to everyone.
		I have seen a further system of self-education carried Out
by students of universities in Canada and America. These
lads are not blessed with overmuch money with which to pay
their college fees. They did not on that account give up all
hope of a 'Varsity training, but during the summer vacation
they took service as stewards on board the river steamers,
and thus earned enough money to pay their term expenses
and at the same time extended their knowledge of men and
things and spent their leisure time at congenial work.

SELF-EXPRESSION
		Also if a fellow feels moved to express his thoughts and
ideas, whether in poetry or writing, or speaking, or in paint-
ing or sculpture, most certainly let him do it. I would only
suggest don't be tempted like so many to rush to extreme
views before you have seen something of the world. Good
self-expression is a virtue, and a virtue of the highest kind.
		Every man has what is know as a "gift" of some sort.
One of you may be an artist or an actor by instinct, though
he may be working in a grocer's shop or as a carpenter;
another may be a clever conjurer or a singer, although
possibly earning his money as a waiter or a stoker; there
are various "gifts" hidden away in almost every man.
		Why is it called a "gift"?
		Well, because it is a natural quality-a gift from God.
That being so the possessor of it ought to make use of it-
for Cod. He can do this by giving out again of that gift to
others; let his singing or his acting be employed to cheer
others who are downhearted, let his conjuring amuse them,
or his pictures open their eyes to what is beautiful. Let him
give his talents for the benefit of others rather than of him-
self and he will be doing God's work, he will be no humbug,
and he will be finding what true happiness means.

PREMPEH'S HINT TO YOUNG TALKERS
		I had the honour, or perhaps better call it the fun, of
rounding up King Prempeh, the ruler of the Ashantis on the
West Coast of Africa, when he had exceeded the limit in the
direction of human sacrifice-but that is another story.
		I merely refer to him here as supplying a hint. Being a savage
monarch, he was accustomed to saying what he jolly well thought
on the spur of the moment, without any consideration of what
might result.
		If he got angry he lost his head and let himself go; and the
man with whom he was angry usually lost his head also-in
another fashion.
		When he was captured he realised that in discussion with
the British authorities he might have to adopt a different line of
talk. If he spoke without first weighing the effect of his words
he might say things that he would afterwards be sorry for.
		So he did what lots of impetuous young fellows might well
imitate in discussion-at any rate figuratively. He carried a
nut, like a big Brazil nut, between his teeth so that, if at any
time he felt impelled to blurt out something untactful, he
had to pause while he took the nut out of his mouth and so
gained time for reflection.
		A further hint that I got from this same King Prempeh
was-when you have got the better of your opponent don't
think that you have entirely done with him or have got
him down and out, he may have yet another weapon up
his sleeve.
		I have a memento of the lesson in the shape of a flint
lock of a native gun on my table at this moment, and this
is how I learned my lesson.
		The King contemplated making a bolt for the jungle
during the night when he saw we were likely to arrest him.
This I had expected of him, so I had an ambush of my men
laid beside the path that he would probably follow.
		I hid myself in the ditch a few yards ahead of my men
so that I could see, outlined against the stars, anyone who
came along, and could give the signal to my men whether to
arrest or let him go by.
		After a time one of the King's scouts came tiptoeing
along very cautiously and quietly, and when he had arrived
opposite to me he stopped and peered hard into the darkness
ahead.
		Something had made him suspicious, and I feared lest he
should turn back and give warning of our presence. So
being within a yard or so of him with his back towards me I
rose up and suddenly grappled with him.
		We had a fine old scurry. He got his gun round pointing
into my tummy, and I caught hold of the lock. The gun
must have been a very old one; the lock came off in my
hand. We then embraced each other, not exactly in affec-
tion; and as we wrestled and rolled over one another my
orderly chipped in like a third dog in a dog fight and just
grasped my opponent's wrist in time to prevent him from
pushing his knife into my liver.
		You see he had another argument besides his gun with
which to press his case.
		Incidentally it is worth while noting that Prempeh on
his return from banishment has become the President of a
local association of Boy Scouts, and his son a Scoutmaster!
		I once knew a millionaire who had been a clown in a
circus, but even when he had made his pile he continued to
work in his shirt-sleeves in his factory. His factory was a
wine-making one in one of the South American States, and
I saw him working there. He explained the reason for his
success was that he insisted on manufacturing the pure
juice of the grape where the people had previously had
chemical decoctions foisted upon them. He had learnt his
lesson in the circus ring. He had found there that second-
hand jokes culled from the comic columns of the papers did
not go down with the public; they wanted genuine original
humour. And so it was with wine. Directly he produced
pure unadulterated stuff he was over-whelmed with orders
and quickly made his pile.
		In many young men's clubs there are debating societies
for training young politicians. But the danger about them is
that the members are only imitation politicians, speaking
what they have read or heard from other men's lips and not
the outcome of their own understanding. The imitation
article takes no one in.
		But if when you have got experience you find yourself in
a position to help the community by taking a part in public
affairs, you should do all you can to train yourself for it, and
workup for the goo& of the community rather than of a
section of it.
		One step is to be able to grasp a point readily and its
different facets, another is to be able to express yourself well
in words. For young fellows who fancy themselves in
debate the late Lord Bryce gave a sound word of advice
when he said, looking back on his past life, "I can see my
teacher in the class-room at school. He stands before me
now, addressing his class of boys, and what he tells me is
this-'Once you have got a good argument for a course of
action, one good and sufficient argument, never look for a
second; a second would only weaken the first'."
		For learning how to express yourself well in public there
is nothing like taking a part in theatricals; it gives you at
once the best practical training in elocution, and in getting
magnetic touch with your audience. It teaches you how
to express yourself by voice and gesture and it takes away
your self-consciousness.

LISTENING
		Now after all this talk about talking, remember always
there is great value and great art in keeping silent. Often
you may feel inclined to butt in with your ideas in a dis-
cussion, but it is generally best to keep quiet and let the
others do the chin-wagging. You learn in this way. Talk-
ing gives away many a man to the silent watcher. On every
committee there are the men who do all the talking and who
get little attention.
		It is the silent man, the one who only speaks when he
has got something really important to say, who is the one
they listen to.
		He is the Sphinx to them.
		"It is the silent men who do things."

SERVICE
		As you train yourself in character and efficiency, let
your aim all the time be not merely the attainment of posi-
tion or prospects for yourself; but of the power to do good to other
people, for the community. Once you have put yourself in a posi-
tion to do service for others you have stepped on to the higher
rung of the ladder that leads to real success-that is happiness.
		Service includes not merely personal little good turns of
courtesy and kindness to other people; these are right and good;
they are what every Boy Scout does every day; but I mean
something higher and bigger than this-service as a citizen
of your country.
		It does not mean generally that you want to push yourself as a
leader in civic affairs or to force your particular political
ideas on other people, but to be a good reliable chap and a
helpful citizen in the State, a brick in the wall. For that you
have to look wide and see what is best for the State as a
whole and not merely to be looking for what is best for
one particular part of it. There is a place for every man in
serving the common weal-the good of the community.
		When you see where you can, according to your particu-
lar gifts, be helpful, chip in and help,just as you would when
backing up your side in a game of football. In fact a ser-
viceable citizen is very much like a good football player;
he makes himself in the first place efficient as an individual
so that he can then play effectively in his place in the team.
		If fellows didn't play in their places, if one thought it
more amusing to be always offside and another preferred to
handle the ball in spite of the rules and another went in for
punching every opponent in the stomach, it would no longer
be a game of football, but anarchy and the break up of the
match.

CIVIC SERVICE
		The crowning good that you can do for the community as
a good citizen is that of taking a share in civic service. By
that I mean taking a hand in municipal and local govern-
ment affairs. But for this it is well to prepare yourself if
you want to be successful,just as you would prepare yourself
for running a race or for passing a qualifying examination.
A few fellows go in for public work purely because they
have the gift of the gab or some half-baked notion of how
government should be run, though they have no experience
or real knowledge of the matter. A solid grounding is
needed in the knowledge of Local Government and its aims
methods and responsibilities.
		When you come to the age of twenty-one you have, as a
citizen, the privilege of voting for the member to repre-
sent your district in Parliament. You ought to make
yourself competent to take this responsibility, and the first
steps have already been suggested to you as those for avoid-
ing the different "rocks," namely:
		Character and Intelligence.
		Handcraft and Skill.
		Manly Health of Mind and Body.
Now comes the fourth thing, viz., Service, that is, playing
the game as a citizen.
	In educating yourself for this a great point is to learn the
history of your town and country, both past and pre-
sent. Much can be learned by reading, but more by travel-
ling and visiting historical points. Then, in order to be able
to understand or give a hand in local public affairs you will
need to learn all you can about the way in which Local
Government is carried out. Study for instance:
	Parish Councils-how appointed and what are their duties
		in Church and other matters.
	Urban and Rural District Councils-and how they deal with
		parishes under their direction.
	Borough and City Councils-how their officers are elected,
		such as Mayor, Alderman and Councillors, and what
		are their duties in administering poor-relief; health
		regulations, elementary schools, liquor control,
		police and fire services, etc.
	County Councils-its officers, departments, and its duties
		over the Borough Councils; how rates are collected
		and expended, from duties, licences and taxation
		upon education, lighting, roads and bridges, hos-
		pitals, housing, libraries, markets, parks, water-
		works, sewage, etc.

PARLIAMENT
	Apart from the Local Government of Counties each Par-
liamentary district sends a representative chosen by the
people to speak for these in the House of Commons.
Members of Parliament have the power of making the laws
for governing the country. Thus nearly every man and
woman over 21 has a voice in the management of the
country.
	Members of the House of Lords sit there by right of
succession, but a proportion of them, those who have
distinguished themselves in business or in national service,
have been appointed by the Monarch in consultation with
the Government.
		The duty of the Lords is mainly to discuss any measure
proposed by the House of Commons. They have no real
power to "down" a question, though they may send it
back to the House of Commons with suggestions for amend-
ment. The question thus gets thoroughly ventilated and
discussed before the House of Lords pass it on to the
Monarch for his consent. This is a formality, since the
Monarch has practically no power to refuse his assent to
what the House of Commons has decided upon.
		The different sections of political feeling thus come to be
represented in Parliament under such names as Liberals,
Conservatives, Labour, and so on. The party which is
strongest in votes carries on the government and is criticised
in all it does by the weaker parties not in power. This is a
good thing so long as it doesn't run to excess and break up
national unity. A country divided against itself cannot stand.
		The Cabinet consists of Ministers under the leadership of
the Prime Minister and is the Executive that carries on the
administration of the country under the general direction
of Parliament. Each Minister has a department of the
Administration under his responsible charge, such as Navy)
Army, Education, Home Office, Foreign Office, Dominions
and Colonial Offices, Ministry of Health, etc. The whole
system has gradually grown up from early days, when kings
were autocratic rulers, till 1215, when, under the Magna
Carta, the power came more into the hands of the people,
and was increased by the Habeas Corpus Act, 1679, the Act
of Settlement, 1701, and the Parliament Act, 1911.
		So Parliament has grown up by steady evolution on good
foundations, and as such has earned the title of the "Mother
of Parliaments". When you travel in other countries,
whether republics or monarchies or embryo States, you will
find that they regard the Mother of Parliaments as the
nearest approach to the ideal of Government of the People
by the People, that is, of pure democratic rule.

A NEW REPUBLIC
		I was once in a newly established republic talking to the
Chief Executioner. He was lamenting the fact that executions
were now done away with. I asked him whether they now
gave long imprisonment instead of execution.
		"Oh, no," he replied, "we are a democratic republic
now; prisons are done away with."
		"Then is there no crime?"
		"Yes, there's plenty of that still."
		"Then what do they do with the criminals?"
		"The soldiers take them outside the gates and shoot
them-till they are dead."
		(This evidently was not his idea of an execution, since he
had been accustomed to do it with a chopper.)
		"But what about a small crime? Suppose a man stole a
pocket-handkerchief, what would they do with him?"
		"Take him outside and shoot him till he was dead."
(I found later that there was a meaning underlying this
"till he was dead," because, the soldiers being trained
democratically, i.e. on their own initiative, only fired from
the hip and not from the shoulder, so it often took them a
long time to hit the objective.)
		"How awful! And what about women who do wrong?
Surely the soldiers don't shoot them till they are dead?"
		"Oh, no, no. We shouldn't do that."
		"What is done, then, to women criminals?"
		"Ah I they are sent to me, and I cut them up into a
hundred pieces; but we have no executions for men."
		This was where a young nation was endeavouring to run
before it had learnt how to walk. There are two or three
just now anxious to get away from nurse's apron-strings
and to do much the same.

		I was at one time staying in a republic where the head
of the government, when sitting quietly at home after his
day's work, was visited by the Commander-in-Chief, a close
friend of his.
		The general came very privately and unostentatiously to
see him. He had come, he said, to say good-bye.
		"Oh, are you going away?"
		"Oh, no. I am going to stay here. It is you who had
better go, because t~morrow there is to be a revolution
and I am to be elected in your place~as soon as you have
been assassinated."
		So, to save trouble, the President went.
		That is the way in which the government changed hands
in those parts.

TWO SIDES TO THE EMPIRE QUESTION
		One Sunday I was strolling in the Park in Sydney, New
South Wales, when I was attracted to listen in turn to two
different tub-thumping cuckoos. And here I got two sides
of the question on the subject of the British Empire, which
may be of interest as an example in that line. But for a fellow
who is educating himself to realise that there are two
sides to every question I would suggest studying the reports
of the doings in the House of Commons and the daily press.
And you will here see not merely two, but very often three
or even four different views of the same point, and each of
them apparently equally well founded. It is good practice,
then, to worry them out for yourself and see which is really
going to benefit the majority of the nation in the long run,
and make up your own mind accordingly.

THE FRYING-PAN IS BETTER THAN THE FIRE
		When I was promoted to command a squadron in my
regiment, it happened to be my own squadron that I was
posted to instead of being transferred to another.
		The men did an unauthorised thing-they had a meeting
to celebrate the occasion, and the sergeant-major, in address-
ing me in their name, said, "We all feel it is better to have
a devil we know, rather than an angel we don't know."
I'm not quite sure which way this remark might be taken
to mean. Anyhow, it applies equally well to fancy forms
of government, which young hot-heads sometimes clamour
for.
		But they find that the solid lump of Britons prefer the
devil of a Govemment that they know to an angel-vision
that they don't know.

INTERNATIONAL
		In developing our patriotism we must not forget the
danger of getting it perverted into a narrow nationalism.
It is right to be proud of your country, but not to gas about
it to the disparagement of others, or to boost it on to
a higher pedestal than it actually deserves. Your best
patriotism is to help to raise your country's efficiency so
that it can take its place adequately in the team of nations
of the world. The War demonstrated a thing to which
people were formerly blind, and that is that all countries
are now very dependent on each other in the details of their
trade and commerce, that only by mutual good will and
co-operation can the world be prosperous and happy.
		One country may have the raw materials, but another
has the means of manufacturing them, while a third can
do the finishing process, and a fourth can best utilise the
articles when finished. The cotton grown in India is manu-
factured in Manchester, finished in Belgium, and used in
East Africa.This kind of thing goes on in every direction
including the food supply from a producing country,
through a supplying country, to a devouring country.
Britain produces more coal and iron than it needs, but not
sufficient beef and corn, and so it exchanges surpluses with
other countries.
		So the duty of the citizens in each State is to get more
into mutual touch and sympathy with those of other
States, through interest in their history and doings, and
through interchange of visits, etc. Once mutual good will
and personal friendship come to be established throughout
the citizenhood of the various countries, it should be the
best guarantee of all against war in the future.
		So you see here lies a big opening before you as a citizen,
no matter how humble may be your standing.
		At eighteen you have the right to call yourself a British
citizen. It is up to you to make yourself worthy of the right,
and to prepare yourself beforehand to exercise and use it. It
gives you the opportunity of service for the community,
which, as I said before, supplies the main step to happiness.
		To prepare yourself means gaining knowledge and experi-
ence, and the practice, to begin with, of small jobs for the
good of the public. (See final chapter.)
		If you then find that you have a gift that way, go on
and take your part in civic affairs.

BE WIDE-MINDED
		When I am Prime Minister, I will make it obligatory
that before a man can be elected to Parliament he should
have travelled round the world at least once; and also
that his education should have taught him to look at both
sides of a question in every case; and also that he should
have learnt leadership, which means as a first step complete
mastery of himself, and sinking to-day's minor party or
class ideas for the nobler outlook, the greater good of the
whole cummunity in the coming years.
		So in preparing yourself keep the right object in your
mind's visage to start with. Go into public life with the
humble desire to serve the community, to help the whole
show along for the good of the greater number. Your reward
will not lie in seeing yourself go up, but in seeing those
around you go up to a better standard of living as a result
of your work. And this will give you more satisfaction than
any decorations or awards that can be heaped upon you.
		I hope after reading this dissertation on the cuckoo
rock dangers and how they should be avoided, you will not
say that another specimen of a cuckoo is the retired general,
whose young days were very long ago, and who now sets
himself up as a law-giver on what a young fellow should do
and what he should not do.
		Well, you may see it in that light; but as a matter of
fact the old fellow has this one point of differ ence from other
cuckoos-he has no personal aim of his own, he has no
irons in the fire or fish to fry, but he has a great love for
his fellow-men, he has a very good memory of what he
went through as a youngster without a father alive to advise
him, and he has a very close sympathy with young men
coming out into life. All he wants to do is to offer them
any hints from his own experiences that may be of use to
them in preventing them from being lured away on to
treacherous shoals, and in helping them to live a happier
and a fuller life.


FOOD FOR THOUGHT

SOME ANTI-CRANK MAXIMS
		A sense of humour will pull you through this danger as
well as through many a bad time.

		Let your ambition be not to see how much you can get
out of work, but how much you can put into it.

		Ambition to do the right is the only ambition that counts.

		Cheerful alacrity in doing a thing that is put up to you
is the best of recommendations.

		A fellow who boosts himself is generally the fellow who
needs boosting.

		Remember you are a brick in the wall, or a player whose
job is to play in his place in the team.

		A balanced citizen is worth half a dozen cranks.

		Lots of fellows demand their rights before they have ever
earned them.

		Joy cometh to him who serveth, through his brother man,
his Father God.

		We never fail when we try to do our duty-we always
fail when we neglect to do it.

		Don't be content with the what-but get to know the
why and the how.

		Nature gave us one tongue, but two ears, so that we may
hear just twice as much as we speak.

		It is a great cleverness to know how to conceal our
cleverness (La Rochefoucauld).

		Notoriety is not the same thing as Fame.

		There are two kinds of people who never change their
opinion, and those are the foolish-and the dead (J. Russell
Lowell).